19 seriously ill, injured children transported out of Gaza for treatment abroad
June 28 (UPI) -- Israel evacuated 68 critically ill and injured Gaza children and their family members for medical treatment in Egypt and other countries, said the Defense Ministry unit that coordinates humanitarian efforts for the war-torn enclave.
The joint operation through the Kerem Shalom Crossing with U.S and Egyptian and international authorities was aimed at reducing pressure on medical facilities in Gaza and in line with Security Cabinet policy to work with U.N. agencies, foreign partners and international organizations to "enable and alleviate" at scale the operation of Gaza's medical facilities, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories said on X.
The 19 children, including five with cancer, were transferred Thursday from Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in the south, their passage taking them into Israeli territory from the southeast corner of the strip before crossing over into Egypt.
The evacuation came amid Israeli airstrikes on Khan Younis and fighting and airstrikes in neighboring Rafah. Israel Defense Forces said it had "attacked terrorists who were in a school complex in Khan Younis."
The World Health Organization welcomed what it said was the first medical evacuations of critically ill children from Gaza in more than seven weeks, but warned that more than 10,000 patients were left behind.
"Of the 13,872 people who have applied for medical evacuation since Oct. 7, only 35% have been evacuated, with support from the WHO and partners. We thank Egypt for their generosity in hosting more than half of all evacuated patients and providing them with free medical care," Hanan Balkhy, director of the WHO's Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office, wrote on X.
She called for the urgent setting up of evacuation corridors to allow "sustained, organized, safe, and timely passage of critically ill patients" from Gaza via multiple routes into Egypt, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and onward to other countries as required.
"WHO stands ready to continue supporting these life-saving medical evacuations."
The war, triggered by the Oct. 7 attacks into southern Israel by Hamas and other militant groups, has brought Gaza's health system to its knees amid the near-total destruction of medical infrastructure and chronic shortages of medicines, equipment and power.
Cairo, which shuttered the key Rafah Crossing through which most food, medicine and other aid is trucked in after Israeli forces launched a ground offensive on Rafah in May, has pledged to keep it closed until it is back under the control of Palestinian authorities.
The evacuations came as the U.N. published findings that more than 450,000 Gazans are at heightened risk of famine.
